The Advanced Technology Office (ATO) led by LC's Chief Technology Officer, Bronis R. de Supinski, plans and oversees the implementation of LC's strategy. It explores technologies at scale with the intent that matured technology can be used as a basis to design future production resources. This group leads the acquisition of and preparation for such LC major systems, including the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sierra supercomputer and its early access and unclassified sister machines.

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El Capitan supercomputer, mockup

The ATO is currently preparing for NNSA's first exascale system, El Capitan. El Capitan will perform complex and increasingly predictive modeling and simulation for NNSA’s vital Life Extension Programs (LEPs), which address weapons aging and emergent threat issues in the absence of underground nuclear testing. The ATO also explores other emerging architectures, including specialized visualization, high-memory, and big data machines and artificial intelligence accelerators such as the SambaNova SN10-8R integrated into Corona and the Cerebras CS-1 integrated into Lassen.

The ATO is comprised of: